Grace a Divine Attribute

Richard Muller explains the Reformed orthodox doctrine of the gratia Dei as being a divine perfection:
Although by far the larger discussion of divine grace belongs to the soteriology of Reformed orthodoxy, the theologians of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also consistently place the gratia Dei among the divine affections. Divine grace, as indicated [...]

Read Full Post »

Letham Against the Covenant of Redemption

In his The Holy Trinity, Robert Letham levels a brief criticism against the notion that Christ’s salvation was but a revelation of a covenant made between the Father and the Son and not their very shared nature. Writing against Warfield, Letham states:
By the same token, we point to the obedience of the incarnate Son [...]

Read Full Post »

Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah 5:7

Truly the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel.Hitherto he spoke figuratively; now he shows what is the design of this song. Formerly he had threatened judgment against the Jews; now he shows that they are not only guilty, but are also held to be convicted persons; for they could not be [...]

Read Full Post »

Calvin on Unrepentant Covenant Children

It is certainly true that when children of believers reach the age of discernment [and have never repented or believed] they will have alienated themselves from God and destroyed utterly the truth of baptism. But this is not to say that our Lord has not elected them and separated them from others in order to [...]

Read Full Post »

Robert Rollock on the Ground of Justification

It may be demanded, Had it not been sufficient for our good, and to the end he might redeem us, if he had only lived well and holily, and not also so to have suffered death for us? I answer, it had not sufficed. For all his most holy and righteous works had [...]

Read Full Post »

A Healthy Response

In the latest issue of Clarion, the Canadian Reformed theological journal, Dr. C. Van Dam critically responded to Mid-America Reformed Seminary’s doctrinal statement regarding NPP and FV issues. Van Dam rightly saw that the issues overlapped with the controversies surrounding Schilder and the Liberated’s covenantal views, which should be pointed out quite openly, seeing [...]

Read Full Post »

William Hendriksen on the Eternal Covenant Within the Trinity

I’ve been preparing a paper for my Church History class on the Dutch Reformed (Liberated) Churches and the theology of Klaas Schilder. Since I am supposed to be focusing on history, I have read a little of other Dutch writers around that time to gain some context. Hoeksema is a good albeit critical [...]

Read Full Post »

S. G. De Graaf on What it Means to Live By Faith

Man now had to learn to live by faith: our sin and the misery in the world had made it appear that man could expect no favor from God. To be sure, man had also lived by faith in Paradise, but then his belief made perfect sense. After the fall, man had to live by [...]

Read Full Post »

The Bifurcated Covenant

Kamphuis laments the dichotomizing of the covenant and the sacraments that Kuyperian scholasticism had produced by 1942:
That which applies to all the children is an external matter. It is, says the Praeadvies, “being children externally only” , and the Toelichting speaks about having a place within the Covenant and congregation of God “externally.” [...]

Read Full Post »

Secession Theologians and the Covenant

More and more theological conviction (1880) grew that the Covenant is a reality in history which is clearly distinct from God’s eternal decree of election: God has established his Covenant within the time with the believers and their children. In the Covenant He does not ask the question whether we belong to the number [...]

Read Full Post »